Lyota Yagi: Upcycling Music Tech into Art

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Old Tech Reimagined as Art by Lyota Yagi

Lyota Yagi is a Japanese artist who has turned a passion for music into a bold, visually striking practice. He gathers outdated formats like vinyl records, cassette tapes, and compact discs and treats them not as relics but as materials with sculptural potential. Each piece engages with how technology ages, how memory clings to familiar objects, and how ordinary media can be recast into new forms that invite viewers to hear and see in unfamiliar ways. Yagi’s work sits at the intersection of sound, sculpture, and installation, blending craft with a playful critique of consumer culture. The artist’s approach emphasizes hands-on creation, experimentation with gravity and balance, and a willingness to push everyday objects beyond their original function. The result is a body of work that feels both nostalgic and forward-looking, a reminder that materials we overlook can still surprise us with new life.

One notable work is “Circuit,” a kinetic sculpture that pairs a portable vinyl player designed by Yagi with a track that endlessly loops. The device spins, the stylus traces a familiar groove again and again, while a minimalist framework frames the spectacle. Viewers hear the circular music while watching the record breathe with every revolution, a paradox: an object meant to be played forever becomes a sculpture that plays itself. The piece invites quiet contemplation about memory, technology, and repetition, and it demonstrates how sound can become a visible, physical phenomenon when paired with precise engineering and thoughtful material choice.

Other works repurpose CDs into abstract geometry; discs are stacked, rotated, or slotted to become facets of a larger design. The bold graphic surfaces catch light, turning the room into a moving color field. Cassette tapes are similarly reimagined; Yagi alters the tape reels by replacing their round centers with squares and triangles, turning a utilitarian interface into an interdisciplinary sculpture. Instead of reading speed or data, viewers experience rhythm and form, a reminder that media forms carry cultural memory as much as information. These pieces articulate a broader theme: artifacts from the past can be reinterpreted to create new aesthetic vocabularies that still resonate in the digital era.

Another striking reversal is a pottery wheel built from an old record player, a small contradiction in which a device that once marked creation now helps create ceramics. The ice record project presents a disc carved with grooves and grooves that seemingly remain enough to let play, a simultaneously chilly and songful paradox. The act of spinning cold material alongside a stylus evokes senses of temperature, texture, and time, producing an experience that feels tactile and musical. These experiments push boundaries of how sound, touch and climate interact, inviting audiences to rethink everyday objects.

Taken together, the images of Yagi’s installations reveal careful attention to light, shadow, and the subtle dance between texture and resonance. Although the media in use are relics from earlier decades, the ideas feel contemporary and accessible to anyone curious about how art can extend the life of ordinary things. The works speak to viewers in North America and beyond, offering a playful, thought-provoking invitation to consider how culture stores memory in material form. They underscore a simple truth: creativity can give new purpose to what we already own, turning obsolescence into possibility.

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